Teddy Abrams was nine years old when discovered what he wanted to do with his life. Sitting in his seat at the San Francisco Symphony, watching conductor Michael Tilson Thomas work wonders, Abrams was hooked.
“Within five minutes of that concert, I had decided I was going to be a conductor,” Abrams told the Boston Herald.
After the performance, Abrams made the bold move of writing to Michael Tilson Thomas asking for conducting lessons. He didn’t get those lessons — turns out a world-class orchestra’s music director is too busy to tutor elementary schoolers. What he did get was a kind note in reply and eventually a lifelong friend and mentor.
Now the music director of the Louisville Orchestra and one of America’s most-celebrated conductors, Abrams does his best to keep Tilson Thomas’s compositions in the public eye. Abrams’ debut program leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra on March 13 features a performance of Tilson Thomas’s “Whitman Songs” (the program runs through March 16).
“I was at the world premiere of ‘Whitman Songs’ when I was kid,” Abrams said. “Like Bernstein, (Tilson Thomas’s) music is very much an expression of him. You can hear him in every bar of this music.”
“Both (Tilson Thomas and Bernstein) are trying to use the many strands of our cultural heritage, which are both populist and not,” he added.
Not coincidentally, the program also features Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.” And just as Abrams sees a connection between Tilson Thomas and Bernstein, he sees a similar overlap between Bernstein and Walt Whitman — populists and artists, towering figures yet capable of making dynamic, tender, and intimate works.
Like his mentor, like Bernstein and Whitman, Abrams has pioneered engagement between artist and audience. A major thrust of his work has been making it accessible to all demographics — often literally by bringing his orchestra to tiny communities and far corners of his state of Kentucky. In this program, which is rounded out by Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, he highlights composers and artists determined to connect people to their art.
Violinist Ray Chen will perform Tchaikovsky’s Concerto. An old friend of Abrams’, Chen is a pioneer of moving classical music into the digital space — a million Instagram followers can’t be wrong!
“Ray is a remarkable individual,” Abrams said. “He’s obviously recognized for his violinistic capabilities and wonderful expressiveness as an artist. But he has also opened up with the way people have connected to classical musicians. Ray has forged a path that is really unique in how to find new audiences.”
Beyond Instagram, Chen has become famous for fun, insightful, flat-out-amazing videos across platforms (look up “Try to Beat me at Violin”).
All in all, Abrams has put together a personal, powerful, and wide-ranging program for his BSO debut. It’s a program his mentor can be proud of.
“(Tilson Thomas) describes a great program as having three elements, something that’s challenging, something that exciting, and finally something that is reaffirming,” he said. “I think this program has all of these things in great measure,”
For tickets and details, visit bso.org
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